Thoughts in Response to Jacques Ellul’s Anarchy and Christianity

Years ago, I read everything I could get my hands on by Jacques Ellul, the French Protestant social thinker and “lay theologian.” I still consider books such as The Presence of the Kingdom and Apocalypse: The Book of Revelationto be some of my most formative books. By the time his little book, Anarchy and Christianitywas published in English (1991) I had not been keeping up with this ever-prolific writer. I did buy a copy that year, but only this Spring did I finally read this book.

I am glad I read it; it helped me remember why I found Ellul a stimulating thinker. I don’t really regret not having read it sooner, though. It is not a very substantial book. And, like too many of Ellul’s books, it’s written in a pretty haphazard style.

However, this is an important book for not other reason than that it does remain one of the few works by a serious theologian who also takes anarchism seriously.